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The Medill School of Journalism partnered with Denison University to co-host the third Between Coasts Forum, gathering journalists to discuss how to promote underreported stories, according to a Monday news release.

The forum was held May 4 and 5 at Medill’s Chicago campus, and nearly 80 local and national journalists were invited, the release said. Medill Prof. Peter Slevin and Denison Prof. Jack Shuler put together the workshop, along with Medill special events manager Stacy Simpson and Medill senior associate dean Tim Franklin.

“The challenges facing local news especially are huge, but there is so much valuable work being done,” Slevin said in the release. “We want to connect those great stories with the audiences near and far that most need to see them.”

Denison hosted the two previous forums, one in January 2017 and another in September, the release said. Between Coasts was created by Shuler and Denison Prof. Mike Croley in an attempt to find ways to tell the stories of middle America, which national news outlets had overlooked during the 2016 presidential election.

Over the course of the two days, panels and speakers included journalists from the Washington Post and ABC News as well as from Nashville Public Media and the Marietta Times from Ohio, according to the release.

“We’re trying to do a couple things,” Slevin said in the release. “One is to support reporters and producers — freelance and fulltime — who don’t have the backing of big news operations. Another is to find ways to get underappreciated stories and issues in front of larger audiences. A third, and this is the issue that is newest, is to get those stories to small and mid-sized outlets, whether print or broadcast, around the country.”